Type of site Video hosting service Area served Worldwide | Founded January 21, 2015 | |
Headquarters 660 4th Street, San Francisco,
California, United States Key people Jason Kilar
Richard Tom Industry Internet
Video hosting service | ||
Vessel was a commercial video service launched in 2015 by the early team behind Hulu, including former CEO Jason Kilar and Richard Tom.
Company history
The service resembled that of YouTube, whereby a viewer can watch videos for free. However, viewers could add "Early Access" at a $3 monthly fee or $20 annual fee to their account, which allowed them to view videos a minimum of 72 hours before the video is released to the general public. Vessel then created mobile applications for iOS and Android devices which optimized the videos for mobile viewing.
The idea behind the site was that creators would be able to gain more revenue from their videos than on YouTube due to the subscription fee as well as advertisements.
Since the site was created, YouTube stars such as Craig Benzine, Linus Sebastian, Connor Franta, Doug Walker, Caspar Lee, Tanya Burr, Good Mythical Morning, Epic Meal Time, Super Best Friends Play, Marcus Butler, Kent Heckel, LaToya Forever, Delaila Johnson, Tre Melvin and Jack Vale signed up to have their content streamed on Vessel.
Vessel was acquired by Verizon on 25 October 2016 and was closed on 31 October 2016.